Piecing together history takes getting wet, slathering on the sunscreen and a lot of detailed measurements, as a group of volunteers led by Kathy Abbass, executive director of the Rhode Island Marine Archaeology Project, learned in the last week.

But while drawings of two shipwrecks off Gaspee show the length of the vessels both about 135 feet, as well as the positioning and dimensions of remaining ribs and planking, the names of the boats and how they ended up on the sandy shoals of what was once Greene Island and the southern end of Gaspee Point remain a mystery. Local lore has it that they are abandoned barges, and there’s the account of Warwick historian Henry Brown that one of the vessels was frequented by gypsies who became such a nuisance that one July 4, the barge was purposely set ablaze.

That could all be the case, but as Abbass reminded on a bright sunny Thursday afternoon, ships can have many lives. What was once a sailing ship could have been outfitted into a powerboat or even converted into a barge. The measurements and construction of the two vessels’ wooden pegs, called trunnels, and iron bolts that were used to fasten ribs and planking on the Greene Island wreck could provide the clues to their origin.

Abbass and her retinue gathered at picnic tables in the shade at the end of Namquid Drive waiting for low tide and the optimum time to wade to Greene Island, or rather what remains of an island that in the early 1900s was large enough to graze cattle and had a well. Today it is submerged at high tide. At low tide, the wreck, which was barely visible as recently as 15 years ago, is now the island’s most distinguishing feature.

“Just in 24 hours we see these sites changing,” said Rep. Joseph McNamara, who like the rest of the group was prepared to wade the shallows to reach the wreck.

McNamara is the driving force behind the effort to document the wrecks. He is also keenly interested in locating any remains of the British revenue schooner HMS Gaspee, which in pursuit of the colonial ship Hannah was lured onto the shoals of Namquid Point (now Gaspee Point) on June 9, 1772.

When colonists learned the Gaspee was aground, they rowed out and set the ship afire, an event that has been locally celebrated as Gaspee Days for the past 50 years as the nation’s first blow of freedom.

With the help of Capitol TV, McNamara produced the film “In Search of the Gaspee.” And so as not to confuse the Gaspee with the two wrecks, Abbass and the team focused on, the effort was dubbed the “Not the Gaspee Project.”

McNamara believes Rhode Islands maritime history is understated, and documenting it not only serves as a record but also is a story that would draw people to the state and benefit the economy.

“We have to do a better job of promoting our historical maritime attractions,” he said.

The shipwrecks off Gaspee could be a part of that story, but it’s too early to know. And should the wrecks be of significance it prompts the issue of whether they should be preserved – and at what cost.

“That would be a judgment call,” McNamara said. “There are only so much resources.”

On Thursday, Abbass wasn’t prepared to spend time speculating. The window to reach the wreck on foot, take the measurements, and return was about two hours. She rallied the amateur archeologists, who were all required to take her course to be on the team, plus archeologists who joined in for a group photo.

Then it was down the steps of Becky Bioty’s home and onto the beach for the slog through waters that reached the knee to Greene Island. Henry Brown joined the parade in his black work shoes and white socks, willingly accepting the support of Ray Turbitt and others.

Protected from the sun by a broad-rimmed hat, long sleeves and plants, looking more like she was prepared for gardening than walking in the bay, Abbass kept a running dialogue as she made the passage. She pointed out dark, long forms in the shallows as parts of the wreck swept away in storms. She returned to them so they could be positioned on a grid sheet as to their relationship to what remained of the hull.

The team went to work quickly on the remains of the hull, positioning numbered red and orange flags at the remains of each rib and unwinding measuring tapes to record the lengths of timbers, some of which looked amazingly new and sprung like titter totters from their sandy grave.

Local lore has it the vessel was used to haul coal before its abandonment at Greene Island. The chunks of coal Brown and others found in the sand would seem to support that story.

Abbass wasn’t ready to make any conclusions. She observed it could be coal used to power the ship. And long sections of charred planking would also appear to support the story the vessel had been torched.

Again, this wasn’t conclusive evidence for Abbass. Surveying the marks she suggested they might indicate where an engine had once been.

In addition to chunks of coal, the team found bolts encrusted with rust, which at one time had held planking to the ribs in addition to the trunnels.

“This was built much more solidly than the other,” McNamara said, referencing the wreck just off shore. He thought the exciting find on that wreck by marine archeologist Joseph Zarzynski Zar, author of the book Lake George Shipwrecks and Sunken History, was what appeared to be bracing in the keel for the base of masts. If that’s what they are, the wreck could have had an earlier life as a sailing ship.

On Thursday, Zar spent the time scouting the waters around the island. It paid off quickly. He was soon calling on McNamara to fetch Abbass and bring some flags and a measuring tape, too. He had located a pile of stones, possibly ballast stones, as well as additional timbers.

Were these from the wreck, or was there another wreck? There was no way of knowing. One dark spot was of particular interest. It was square shaped and thought to possibly be the end of a rib from another wreck emerging from the sand. Abbass reached underwater and felt it.

“I think it’s stone, not wood,” she declared. Zar agreed.

Thinking of the change in tide, Abbass shouted to the team to finish up their measurements and start packing their gear. And then, in excitement, she reached down to pull a half-pie-shaped piece of wood from the shore. She held it up, examining its beveled edge. She handed it to Zar. McNamara questioned what it could be.

Abbass is convinced it is half of the bottom of a wooden keg. She put it in a plastic shopping bag along with the neck of a small bottle and other items found in the sand. When she got back to shore and before a debriefing, Abbass would see that the wooden semi-circle was placed in a pan of water to ensure the condition in which it was found.

A second phase of the investigation will kick in this fall or winter as the team records stories and observations from locals as they relate to the two wrecks.

But as McNamara said yesterday, the search goes on.